New Zealand Green-Lipped Mussels

As part of an involved pre-Thanksgiving dish, Andrew and Lauren brought a number of New Zealand green-lipped mussels from Koreatown.

I love mussels and these New Zealand mussels are my favorite. They are larger than any of the black varieties of mussels I've eaten. They are grown for aquaculture in New Zealand producing over 140,000 tons annually. The aquaculture mussels are known as Greenshell mussels. Andrew got an empty pot very hot, then dumped in the mussels followed by some white wine, producing quite a bit of steam. They did not stay very long before he poured out the broth into a frying pan

and put the mussels in a separate bowl. Many of the mussels did not steam long enough to open, so we struggled getting them open,

and ripped some of them in the process.

My prior post on monkfish and a later post on dungeness crab will tie together with the mussels to show how Andrew made one incredible dish.